Entrepreneurs stay positive in face of economy

Tuesday

Sep 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2008 at 11:02 AM

Audrey Austin is just getting started. Jodie Cole, as she nears two years in business, just purchased a second building and expanded. William and Phyllis Suiter have been selling pizzas for more than a decade and have been in the restaurant business for more than three.

Tim Landis

Audrey Austin is just getting started. Jodie Cole, as she nears two years in business, just purchased a second building and expanded. William and Phyllis Suiter have been selling pizzas for more than a decade and have been in the restaurant business for more than three.

While the big Wall Street investment firms are grabbing headlines, small businesses cope with the economic slowdown at ground level. In the case of Springfield, there's the added uncertainty of state government - budget problems, political bickering, layoffs and furloughs.

"It is the hot topic right now," said Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Gary Plummer. "Most of our businesses have an optimistic view of their own business in the next six months, but it's different when it comes to the national economy."

Three local business owners - three different types of businesses in three different parts of town - talked to The State Journal-Register about their strategies for riding out the turbulent economy.

One summed up his outlook this way: "This too shall pass."

FLAWLESS KUTZ

Religious faith was a big part of Audrey Austin's decision to open Flawless Kutz Barber Shop this summer, including the approximately $23,000 that went into startup costs from her own pocket.

"I did this strictly from the heart. We have been 100 percent blessed," said Austin, who, barely two months into the venture, already has long-term plans for a Flawless Kutz franchise in central Illinois.

Still, she tried for conventional loans.

"It's just tough to get the money, period. They just say 'no' because it's a new business. Maybe if we'd been here five years," said Austin.

Hers is a neighborhood strategy, starting with fliers, brochures and word-of-mouth for the small shop. But it isn't her first business venture. Austin operated A&E Fashions and Art on Martin Luther King Drive for about 18 months before deciding to go to styling school.

Austin also sees her fledgling business as a family-oriented community anchor. In addition to five barbers, a stylist and one braiding specialist, one side of the shop is set aside for a pool table, video games, snacks and children's activities.

She takes pride in putting religious faith into action by offering a chance to start over for people who are just out of prison. Two of her seven employees completed their training while still in jail.

"They're in a Catch-22. They have to become licensed, but they have more opportunity with a business like me than at CMS (Illinois Central Management Services) or McDonald's. We are a barbershop that is going to give back to the community," said Austin.

"I give them an opportunity, I gave them a job."

Business and faith are both in her background, Austin said. Her father, Andrew Corey, has a property management company and owns a local Rent-A-Wreck franchise. Her stepfather, Wilbur Day, is pastor of the Brown Street Church of God in Christ in Springfield.

The slow economy has had an effect, said Austin, though she added, "People always need a haircut."

Her first few weeks have been encouraging, said Austin, but still she hopes traffic will pick up.

"It's been a little slow during the week, but picks up on weekends," she said.

Austin added that, slow economy or not, she has faith in her strategy of a second Springfield store in the next year-and-a-half and eventually of a string of Flawless Kutz outlets from Jacksonville to Champaign.

Her plan is to use revenue from new stores to fund successive stores. "A lot of people are negative, but if you don't have a vision, you can't do it," she said.

ANTONIO'S PIZZA

Bill and Phyllis Suiter have been through plenty of up-and-down economic cycles during more than three decades in the restaurant business.

But few compare to 2008, according to the couple.

"This is the hardest time I've ever seen in the restaurant business. We try not to change what we do. We're trying to look long term," said Bill Suiter.

But gasoline prices that can deliver a quick, overnight $4-a-gallon jolt and a $21 price for a 25-pound bag of flour that cost $7 a year ago cannot help but affect the bottom line at the seven Antonio's Pizza stores owned by the Suiters.

A $1.50 delivery surcharge was added to help drivers pay for gas. The work force of 100 compares to a peak of 121, and Phyllis Suiter has stepped in to take over the office and bookkeeping operations.

"I was basically starting to take life easy, then started filling in here to help him out," she observed.

But years in the business have taught them it's best to keep the changes away from the consumer as much as possible.

"You look at everything. You look at the phone bills. We look at everything on that profit-loss statement, and see where we can make a cut without affecting the customers," said Bill Suiter.

The Suiters opened their first restaurant, a Heritage House smorgasbord, in Oklahoma in 1976. It was the Heritage House chain that brought the couple to Springfield in 1984. Bill was director of operations for the local restaurant.

Seven years later, they purchased their first Antonio's Pizza. They now own six in Springfield and one in Chatham.

The Antonio's at 1614 S. MacArthur Blvd. serves as the base of operations for the chain, and most days, both Suiters can be found at work with a hands-on management style. In Bill Suiter's case, hands-on means hands in the pizza dough.

They also faced the added complication the last few years of major traffic changes at MacArthur and Wabash avenues that isolated a group of businesses on the northwest corner of the intersection. A couple of businesses simply gave up.

The slow economy - and especially high gasoline prices - have forced changes in customer behavior, said Phyllis Suiter, but she said consumers seem remarkably understanding that small-business owners face higher costs too.

"They don't have the disposable income they once had. They may not be getting that regular Friday night pizza or that regular Friday night out," she said.

Still, they agreed to share a couple of thoughts with younger business owners after seeing their own business through events ranging from the runaway inflation of the 1970s to the dot.com bust of the 1990s.

"Everything goes in cycles, and we'll get through this too. This too shall pass," said Bill Suiter. Said Phyllis Suiter, "You just have to be there with your business, and you have to go with the flow."

FLEA MARKET TO FABULOUS

Teddy and Sophie are a big part of Jodi Cole's marketing plan.

Teddy, a 2-year-old, soft-coated wheaten terrier, and Sophie, a five-month-old "barn cat," playfully meet shoppers, visitors or anyone willing to give them a moment's notice at Flea Market to Fabulous, a craft, gift and art business nearing its second anniversary.

"Animals have this ability to immediately make people feel comfortable," said Cole, adding that every little bit of comfort helps when buyers may have state budgets, gasoline prices and the stock market on their mind.

As the name implies, Cole's business specializes in conversion of flea-market goods, say an old typewriter or door panel, into art. A manual typewriter becomes a planter, a door panel a refinished dining-room table.

And even as the national economic slowdown began to take hold, Cole last spring added a second building for larger pieces.

"The building became available and I had a short time to decide. I liked the building, and the location was right. The timing was not quite right, but two out of three wins," said Cole.

Cole regularly makes the rounds of flea markets and estate auctions in the search for the old that can be converted to the offbeat, adding that another sign of the times is "we have a lot more people coming in to sell to us."

A group of seven partners, each with their own art/conversion specialty, provides pieces for the two buildings. Cole said she also is of the viewpoint that, the slower the times, the more aggressively you market your business.

Employees from the Statehouse complex a couple of blocks north are part of the walk-in business mix and, while Cole said most treat a visit as a welcome diversion, state budget issues are on their minds these days.

"They are a little less impulsive (in purchases)," she said, adding that the first week after the "financial meltdown" on Wall Street was especially slow.

"The next week we did very well. People were coming in regardless of the stock market crisis, the financial crisis or the banking crisis. If people see a bargain, they'll shop," said Cole.

Her family, including 11-year-old daughter Peyton, helps out when possible, but she is clearly owner, restorer-in-chief and CEO. As for adding a second building during an economic slowdown, Cole said running a successful small business also is about a little risk-taking.

"I could walk away today and be OK. But absolutely without a doubt, I wish I'd done it a little sooner," she said.